Scott Walker sticking to using policy to hit political opponents: Wisconsin Families

Teachers - not the bad guys

Scott Walker is a religious zealot who has never had qualms aligning himself with the most anti-social, voracious and predatory moneyed interests in pursuit of his far-right ideology and personal glory in the Republican Party.

When Walker called a special session on "job creation" in May 2011, Walker and the Republican legislature granted Walker the power of executive fiat (governor's say-so) over the language and approval of administrative rule-making. A rule implementing a statute becomes a rule, if and only if, in Walker's mind the rule meets Walker's ideological requirements. (2011 WISCONSIN ACT 21)

Now, Walker has again taken aim at public teachers as the scourge of society and the economy by "systematically attacking the workplace protections, wages and benefits of Wisconsin teachers(,) [an attack on teachers that] is no longer in question" in his quest to dismantle Wisconsin's public school system. (Capital Times, April 26, 2012)

What Walker and his radical ideologues do not realize (or perhaps not care about) is that many families in Wisconsin have a teacher in a the family, a teacher who is part of the extended family, a family friend, and (in a shocker to Republicans) a dedicated former teacher who is a role model, friend and: A teacher.

If this point were not too obvious, I found evidence for this fact in the field when I had the pleasure of gathering signatures in Fond du Lac for recalling that shit-bag, Randy Hopper, and discovering some six of the 10 signatures I gathered on my first petition sheet met one or more of the criteria of the above paragraph. Other field work confirmed this in other districts confirmed this.

I still believe Walker and his veteran fund-stealing top aides will put away Walker, but demonizing teachers is not just an outrage, politically it's pretty stupid.

I received a lot of quotes from veteran friends about Scott Walker condoning his aides' stealing from veterans, here are two:

Lem Genovese, Yankee Medic

”What did you expect for a GOP governor that wants to remove unions and collective bargaining from Wisconsin. You get what you paid for in Walker and embezzlement is just another nail in his re-call coffin.”

Joe ‘Ragman’ Tarnovsky

United States Army (28 January 1968 to 22 Oct 1970)
Company A, 27th Combat Engineers
28 August 68 to June 69
Crew Chief/Door Gunner
240th Assault Helicopter Company
Mad Dog Huey Gunships (UH-1C Hueys)
In-Country, South Vietnam (28 August 68 to 22 October 70)

“The following award is being presented to Scott Walker, Kevin Kavanaugh and Tim Russell for actions BELOW and INFERIOR AGAINST VETERANS: The Distinguished RAT BASTARD Tail for Thievery and Lack of Accountability.”

“At least Benedict Arnold had the guts to openly fight against the American Veterans he sold out!”

For Jeri-Lynn Betts

This weekend's reports from the field of the eight senate districts reveal we will likely be having recall elections this Summer. It's worth recalling why.

I'll give it a name: The late Watertown teacher, Jeri-Lynn Betts [via Matthew Rothschild in The Progressive Magazine]

To the Betts families, friends, former students and community, here's something that helps and inspires. Peace:

Life Without You

... And the guy that's standing on the ground, that needs some help.
You don't walk up and kick him, if you gonna do that
You better wear his shoes for awhile.

Because you know what? Trade places with him and he'll pick you up.
It's the truth.
You better pass around as much love as you can in your lifetime.
It's all we really have to give or accept.
Are you with me?
- Stevie Ray Vaughan, SRV

"Amazing" Wisconsin Teacher Dead in Apparent Suicide, “Distraught” Over Scott Walker’s Attacks

There are consequences when Gov. Walker takes aim at our communities and plays games with our families' lives.

A dedicated Watertown, Wisconsin teacher reportedly distraught at what Walker and the Republicans are doing to our public schools and our families, committed suicide in early March.

Is Jeri-Lynn Betts mere collateral damage to the "bomb" you bragged about dropping to the faux Koch brother, Gov. Walker?

Do you get a nice chuckle out of this story?

At least have the decency to consider the proposition that when teachers dedicate their lives to the pursuit of education, playing with these lives will lead to tragic consequences.

From Matthew Rothschild in The Progressive Magazine:

Jeri-Lynn Betts, an early childhood teacher in the Watertown, Wisconsin, school district, died on March 8 of an apparent suicide.

A colleague says she was “very distraught” over Gov. Scott Walker’s attacks on public sector workers and public education.

Betts, 56, was a dedicated teacher who was admired in the Watertown community.

“She was an amazing person,” says the Rev. Terry Larson of the Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church in Watertown, where she was a member. “She really put her heart and soul in her work,” adds Larson, who officiated at her memorial service on March 15.

“She was one of the good guys,” says Karen Stefonek, who used to teach with Betts. “She was very, very dedicated, and worked so well with the little special needs children. She just was very, very good with them, and very well respected in the district.”

In the days after Betts’s death, two members of the school district contacted The Progressive about her death, calling it a suicide and saying it was connected, at least in part, to the policies that Walker has proposed. He has demanded that public workers, including teachers, contribute a significant amount of their salaries to health care and pensions. And in his budget, he proposed taking $900 million out of the public schools, imposing a freeze on property taxes so local governments can’t chip in more for education, and allowing any student, regardless of income, to go to a private school with a taxpayer subsidy.

“She was definitely very distraught about it,” said one of her co-workers, who requested anonymity. “She was feeling a lot of stress about the legislation that was going through.”

“She was concerned about the cuts teachers would have to take,” said another, who also requested anonymity. This co-worker added that Betts’s colleagues acknowledged her anguish about the governor’s policies in their discussions after her death.

Figuring out all the contributing factors behind a likely suicide is a complicated problem. Such deaths are in some ways incomprehensible—and always tragic.

But the report from the Watertown police gives some clues. A police offer took a statement from Susan Kemmerling, who worked with Betts as a special education paraprofessional for the past decade.

“Susan advised me that Geri had a long history of depression,” Officer Jeffrey Meloy wrote in his report. “Susan stated that the last several weeks had been ‘stressing her out’ due to the protests and the introduction of the budget repair bill and the uncertainty involved in the teaching world, as far as who was going to have jobs and what services were going to be cut. . . . Susan stated that Jeri truly loved her job and was about the most outgoing and bubbly person you could ever want to be around. Susan stated that everybody had noticed, however, the last few weeks since the introduction of the budget repair bill that Jeri was having a lot of difficulty.” Officer Meloy also interviewed Bonnie Lauersdorf, a physical therapist who worked with Betts for the past 25 year years and had been friends with her “for most of her adult life,” the report says. She told the officer that Jeri was concerned about “the uncertainty of what the budget was going to do to her retirement” and about “cuts to the school districts and possible cuts to the special ed program.” Lauersdorf added that “Jeri felt like she was being ‘forced out,’ ” the report says.

Walker’s policies are placing a heavy strain on teachers, says Steve Cupery, the director of the Lakewood UniServ Council, the teachers’ union in Watertown.

“There’s a lot of stress, especially among older teachers,” he says. “They’re concerned about being targeted. And there’s the stress associated with the potential loss of benefits, which could amount to a substantial cut in pay.”

Cupery adds that teachers are worried about class sizes going up, increased workloads, and not being able to “develop curriculum material around the individual needs of students.”

Walker’s policies have “shredded the morale of teachers,” said Wisconsin State Assemblywoman Sondy Pope-Roberts on March 16. “The cuts to schools districts are going to be drastic.”

Pat Theder, Jefferson County coroner, looked into Betts’s death. “Our investigation is still pending,” he says. “We’re waiting for a toxicology report. She may have ingested something. We’re doing toxicology to determine if she took over the therapeutic amount of her medication and whether that was enough to kill her.”

Betts’s old colleague Karen Stefonek remembers her as “fun loving” and as someone who “loved to travel.”

Her death “took a lot out of us,” Stefonek says. “It hit us in the heart.”